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 AP-Yahoo poll shows McCain gains
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republicans are no longer underdogs in the race for the White House. To pull that off, John McCain has attracted disgruntled GOP voters, independents and even some moderate Democrats who shunned his party last fall.
Partly thanks to an increasingly likable image, the Republican presidential candidate has pulled even with the two Democrats still brawling for their party's nomination, according to an Associated Press-Yahoo news poll released Thursday. Just five months ago
-- before either party had winnowed its field -- the survey showed people preferred sending an unnamed Democrat over a Republican to the White House by 13 percentage points.
Also helping the Arizona senator close the gap: Peoples' opinions of Hillary Rodham Clinton have soured slightly, while their views of Barack Obama have improved though less impressively than McCain's.
The survey suggests that those switching to McCain are largely attuned to his personal qualities and McCain may be benefiting as the two Democrats snipe at each other during their prolonged nomination fight.
By tracking the same group of roughly 2,000 people throughout the campaign, the AP-Yahoo poll can gauge how individual views are evolving. What's clear is that some Republican-leaning voters who backed Bush in 2004 but lost enthusiasm for him are returning to the GOP fold
-- along with a smaller but significant number of Democrats who have come to dislike their party's two contenders.
The findings of the survey, conducted by Knowledge Networks, provide a preview of one of this fall's battlegrounds. Though some unhappy Republicans will doubtless stay with McCain, both groups are teeming with centrist swing voters who will be targeted by both parties.
The poll shows that McCain's appeal has grown since November by more than the Democrats' has dwindled. McCain gets about 10 percentage points more now than a generic Republican candidate got last fall; Obama and Clinton get about 5 points less than a nameless Democrat got then.
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Obama says remember the cookies
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Remember the cookies?
Barack Obama wants to make sure that voters do, even if it was 16 years ago that Hillary Rodham Clinton created an uproar when she sniffed that she could have given up her career and "stayed home, baked cookies and had teas."
While Clinton brought up the problems Obama could face in a general election if he's nominated, Obama used a two-hour debate Wednesday night to remind Americans what they don't like about his opponent and her husband, Bill, the former president. Both candidates argued they were tough enough to withstand whatever Republicans try to use against them.
Obama raised President Clinton's controversial pardons on his last day in office. And he wanted Americans to know that Hillary Clinton repeatedly called him names in the past few days.
The point was to tie Clinton to the divisive politics of the past at a time when a new poll shows that a majority of voters view her as dishonest. The loss of voters' trust comes as Clinton has been attacking Obama for comments he made recently about Pennsylvania voters who "cling to guns or religion" because they are "bitter" about the economy
-- statements that he maintains he mangled.
"During the course of the last few days, you know, she's said I'm elitist, out of touch, condescending," Obama said.
"You take one person's statement, if it's not properly phrased, and you just beat it to death," he added. "And that's what Senator Clinton's been doing over the last four days."
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 Despite the signs that her criticisms may be backfiring, Clinton did not pull her punches against Obama. Yet she tried to soften the blows by delivering them in polite tones and often with a smile. She said his "bitter" comments demonstrated a misunderstanding of religion in people's lives. And she said he has other weaknesses that could hurt him in the general election
-- his relationship with a controversial pastor and 1960s radical William Ayers.
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Bruce Springsteen endorses Obama
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Rock star Bruce Springsteen endorsed Democratic Sen. Barack Obama for president Wednesday, saying "he speaks to the America I've envisioned in my music for the past 35 years."
In a letter addressed to friends and fans posted his Web site, Springsteen said he believes Obama is the best candidate to undo "the terrible damage done over the past eight years."
"He has the depth, the reflectiveness, and the resilience to be our next president," the letter said. "He speaks to the America I've envisioned in my music for the past 35 years, a generous nation with a citizenry willing to tackle nuanced and complex problems, a country that's interested in its collective destiny and in the potential of its gathered spirit. A place where
'...nobody crowds you, and nobody goes it alone.' "
The bard of New Jersey is known for his lyrics about the struggles of working-class Americans, particularly in the economically ravaged factory towns of the Northeast.
Springsteen and his E Street band were part of the Vote for Change tour, a coalition of musicians opposed to the re-election of President Bush in 2004. He wrote the anti-war ballad "Devils and Dust" about Iraq.
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THE DEMOCRATS
Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama meet with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in Washington. Clinton then campaigns in Pennsylvania while Obama talks to voters in North Carolina.
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THE REPUBLICANS
John McCain also meets with Brown in Washington.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"An attack on Israel would incur massive retaliation by the United States."
-- Hillary Rodham Clinton.
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STAT OF THE DAY:
Just more than 30 percent of the Pennsylvania's population is Catholic. In general elections, Democratic presidential candidates since Bill Clinton in 1992 won the Catholic vote in the state
-- as well as Pennsylvania.
[Associated
Press]
Compiled by Ann Sanner and Jerry Estill.
Copyright 2008 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
